Michael Cohen: Trump Made Me Threaten His High School And College To Hide His Grades
President Donald Trump ordered his former lawyer Michael Cohen to threaten his high school and colleges so they wouldn’t release his grades, according to written testimony obtained by the New York Times. Sections of Cohen’s statement were revealed on Morning Joe Wednesday morning.
“In addition to the allegations he makes about WikiLeaks, about the President’s knowledge of the meeting at Trump Tower and others, there’s some personal stuff in here,” MSNCB’s Willie Geist reported. “The testimony will offer what he says is a private view of President Trump’s thoughts on race.”
“Cohen is expected to say that Trump – quote – ‘once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that won’t a s—hole, this was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.’ Cohen goes on: ‘While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented only that black people could live that way. And he told me black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid, and yet I continued to work for him.'”
“Cohen also reportedly going to reveal his efforts to conceal Donald Trump’s education records after the President claimed for years that he graduated first in his class from Wharton. Cohen plans to say: ‘I’m talking about a man who declares himself brilliant but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the college board to never release his grades or SAT scores,'” Geist read from Cohen’s statement.
“I’m giving the committee today copies of a letter I sent, at Mr Trump’s direction, threatening these schools with civil and criminal action if Mr Trump’s grades and SAT scores were ever disclosed without his permission,” Cohen’s statement says. “The irony wasn’t lost on me at the time that Mr Trump in 2011 had strongly criticized President Obama for not releasing his grades after calling President Obama quote a terrible student.”
PBS’ Yarmiche Alcindor weighed in with some analysis.
“My take on it is that Michael Cohen is trying to deconstruct the facade and character that President Trump has sold to the American people,” Alcindor said.
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
